Musicality: Intro - What Is It To Me?

The way I see musicality is not only from the perspective of a dancer but also from that of an educator. It must be something I can pass on to people. For me, this means that musicality must be practical.

Practical means, for me, that musicality must be built on simple elements so that it is learnable by many if possible. Learnable also means, for me, that this process helps and supports me efficiently—if not more efficiently—to achieve my individual dance expression. Radical means, in general, that musicality is accessible and tangible for beginners, without compromise and immediately, and is not reserved only for advanced dancers.

With these fundamental intentions, I therefore base my understanding of musicality on a simple reality. A level before song structures and rhythms are born. The reality where the musician's hand strikes the conga and a sound is produced. Here begins the bridge between untrained European bodies and Cuban musical heritage.

This is the fundamental core of my musicality. I passionately uphold the truth that this core is simple enough to quickly help untrained ears and bodies achieve individual, free expression of dance. For I did not grow up in Cuba with the music, the clave, and the feeling, nor did I grow up with the natural body coordination of Afro and Rumba. I am also not a trained, professional dancer or musician. I am not someone who believes that more of something is always better. Reality brings me back to the ground that not everyone must turn their life and time into an obsession to enjoy musicality. Likewise, not everyone has the same physical and musical prerequisites. Yet I fight for something that gives everyone a chance to experience deeper and more enjoyable experiences, without compromise. In the last three years, in which I have passed on and taught this musicality and other content from scratch in courses and workshops, I have seen the value of this core through the immediate changes in participants and the subsequent "aha" moments. Whether a larger audience sees value in it remains an open question.

This blog post is an experiment to offer this reality to a larger audience. To ultimately see whether this musical core is more than just a niche and has more than just individual value.

I thank Social Dancing for inviting me to share my perspective on their platform and all the dancers who have found their way to this contribution.

The first part continues with why I primarily view musicality in terms of the sound following a strike, pluck, or stroke.